Image Credit: Ørsted
Danish offshore wind energy giant Ørsted has reported yet another incident involving damage to a turbine blade at the 583-megawatt (MW) Greater Changhua 4 offshore wind farm in Taiwan, the second in under two months.
Ørsted confirmed an unspecified incident happened around noon on Friday to a turbine blade at its Greater Changhua 4 Wind Farm, off the coast of Taiwan.
According to the announcement, no personnel were working on the turbine at the time of the incident and there were no vessels within the area. A safety exclusion zone was quickly put in place and safety control measures activated in the surrounding waters.
Ørsted said that it is working with wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy to determine what caused the incident.
In a statement to journalists, an Ørsted spokesperson said that “blade failures of this nature are highly unusual across our offshore fleet,” adding that “it would be premature to draw conclusions” before a thorough technical analysis of the situation is completed.
This comes less than two months after a fire broke out at a wind turbine at the Greater Changhua 4 Wind Farm.
According to Ørsted’s press release at the time, the wind turbine “automatically tripped and ceased operation after its system detected an abnormal condition.”
“Following this, the wind farm team observed a fire on the turbine, and the fire was extinguished shortly after,” Ørsted said. “We can confirm that no personnel were injured in the incident and all relevant authorities and key stakeholders have been notified.”
No subsequent announcements or updates have been made regarding either incident.
The two separate incidents have marred what should otherwise have been a milestone moment for Ørsted and Taiwan, with major construction works at the combined 920 MW Greater Changhua 2b and 4 offshore wind farms finishing at the beginning of September.
This is the second gigawatt-scale offshore wind farm Ørsted has completed in Taiwan, following on the heels of the 900 MW Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms that came into operation in 2024.
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